Allen County health chief calls for action to fight STDs

October 18, 2017

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — The health commissioner in a northeastern Indiana county that’s experiencing an increase in sexually transmitted diseases says it’s time for local officials to respond to that trend.

The Allen County-Fort Wayne Department of Health says the county saw an 11 percent increase in STD infections during the first nine months of 2017. That includes 674 new gonorrhea cases between January and September, giving the county nearly 190 more such cases than at the same time last year.

The Journal Gazette reports Health Commissioner Deborah McMahan told the health department’s board on Monday that local officials “really need to sit down and try to figure out how to address this.”

She says communities often see increased cases of gonorrhea and syphilis followed by an increase in HIV infections.